Our First Day at Work

Monday was our first day to work in the field. Goni was still sick so she stayed back at the hotel. Abraham is the local Medical Teams International field worker. He picked us up at our hotel and drove us out to Yagay (yey-guy). Along the way we picked up Eric who is our interpreter for the week.

Yagay is a neighborhood of indigenous people. I use the word neighborhood loosely because it is really just a shanty town. People live in small structures made from wood and tin metal. They keep chickens and live on almost nothing. Cooking is done outside over a fire pit. Americans live better when we are camping.

The residents have already each dug a pit about four foot square on their property. They then used large bricks mortared together to build a foundation. A concrete slab is poured on the ground with two holes in it. The slab is then allowed to harden and is then put on top of the brick foundation.
The slab is reinforced with wire mesh and has four pieces of rebar sticking out in each corner. The rebar is what the upper part of the structure is anchored to. We take wood and tin and build a hut on top of the slab.
Everybody in the family, and sometimes neighbors, participates in the project. Everything is cut by hand as there is no electricity. The kids hang around and watch the project take shape. Some even try their hand at hammering nails. The women cut the wood and tin while we build.

We completed two latrines on Monday before heading back to town. Goni was feeling a little better and went to dinner with us. Hopefully she will go out in the field with us Tuesday.
Keep an eye on our blog for daily updates. Will try to post pictures later in the week.